Using grant, Morgan County to perfect parcel data

After spending a total of $22,000 last year on perfecting addressing records throughout the county, Morgan County is seeking a $10,000 State of Utah Cadastral Grant to create parcel data.
“We still have a lot of parcels in Croydon and Round Valley that need to be built,” said Charlie Ewert, Morgan County planning and development services director. He would also like to use the money to update parcel corrections in the Mountain Green area.
The county would put a 20 percent match of $2,000 into the GIS fund for the project.
Ewert said parcel data is essentially outlining property boundaries. Of some 4,000 total parcels in the county, almost 3,000 have already been mapped, Ewert said. His primary focus will be on parcels on the valley floor and in other developable locations.
“Currently, we are the only county in the state that still hand draws our plats,” he said. “There is an unlimited number of things we can do with that data if we can get it verified and ready to execute. Without electronic parcel data information, we are missing out on the opportunity to directly link our GIS data with a whole host of things such as delinquent taxes, zoning violations, the issuance of a building permit, and the location of sex offenders.”
Council Chairwoman Tina Kelley said county department heads such as the clerk and assessor are eager to have such electronic data available.
Councilman Ned Mecham worried about how much of the information would be available to the public.
However, Ewert told the council they have the ability to restrict the information as they see fit.
“We could make this as user-friendly or restrictive as we want it to be,” Ewert said. He suggested making parcel lines and identification numbers available to the public.